Nashville's Gulch - the next Music City Miracle?

Nashville's emerging new city neighborhood, The Gulch, was once a decaying old railyard adjacent to a freeway near Music Row and the city's downtown. Now on its way to becoming a showcase of urban revitlization, The Gulch is the South's first LEED-ND certified neighborhood.

The developer, MarketStreet Enterprises, says that its "vision for The Gulch is for the neighborhood to become a model for smart growth, urbanism and sustainable design for the City of Nashville and in the region." Here is what the neighborhood is beginning to look like, along with what the area looked like before, a site plan, and a map showing the new development's location. Click on the images for the originals, which are larger:

It is certainly an ideal place for development. MarketStreet reports that there are over 1,000 daily bus rides and over 6,000 jobs within easy walking distance and that a commuter rail shuttle makes five stops within the development. The developer is also recyling old buildings on the property. For more information and to read how the project qualified for silver certification under LEED-ND, go here.

(For that other Music City Miracle, go here, or just watch the video.)

Kaid Benfield writes (almost) daily about community, development, and the environment. For more posts, see his blog's home page.

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